1. Technical Field
The invention includes embodiments that relate to a hoist system, a vehicle having the hoist system, and one or more associated methods.
2. Discussion of Art
In a current off-highway vehicle (OHV) application, an engine of the OHV directly mechanically drives one or more hydraulic pumps. These pumps supply hydraulic pressure for hoist, steering, and other applications. Because of the direct engine-pump connection, the pumps necessarily run at a speed proportional to engine speed. While this provides some efficiencies, a drawback to this approach is that engine speed needs to be increased in response to a load demand on these pumps (e.g., in the case of a dumper or haul truck, when the truck bed is hoisted), and this may be undesirable due to the commensurate fuel consumption, emissions, noise, and the like that accompany increased engine speed. Further, the speed of response time may be undesirably slow due to the engine speed ramp rates. Additionally, the pumps need to run at the high engine speeds even when the demand on the pumps is low.
Therefore, it may be desirable to have a system or vehicle with properties and characteristics that differ from those properties of currently available systems and vehicles. It may be desirable to have a method that differs from those methods currently available.